Asia

Japan and national security

Island defence

THE TIMING could hardly have been better. Japan published drafts of its first-ever national-security strategy, together with a review of its future military needs, on December 11th; the final versions are due this week. The strategy is to harden the country’s defence posture, and it comes just weeks after China declared a new air-defence zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea which covers the islands that Japan administers and calls the Senkakus (which China claims for its own and calls the Diaoyus).

Japan’s government had been delighted with America’s muscular response to the Chinese ADIZ. Its ally sent two B-52 bombers to fly through the zone with no notification to China. But America did not go as far as Japanese officials would have liked, in that it stopped short of demanding the ADIZ be scrapped. That hesitation played on a long-held fear that America might not commit its military might to defending the Senkakus, even if the need should arise. Though they are but a few uninhabited specks of rock, they are covered by the Japanese-American mutual-defence treaty. Now Japan must quickly “strengthen its own capabilities and expand its own roles”, urges the draft strategy paper, even as it pursues closer military ties with America.

In a weekend meeting in Tokyo with leaders from South-East Asia, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, suggested his guests should consider China’s establishment of the ADIZ in the East China Sea as a matter of concern for their entire region. Many of the South-East Asian states have tetchy relations with China over questions of sovereignty in the South China Sea. China’s foreign ministry responded on December 15th by accusing Japan of “malicious slander”.

Malice or not, Japan’s strategy is in effect a five-year plan for a military build-up. The most noteworthy additions to Japan’s defence capability are to be aimed at further strengthening its sea and air control of the space around the disputed islets. A second unit of 20 F-15 fighter jets will be deployed at Naha air base on the southern island of Okinawa, near to the Senkakus. Early-warning aircraft will be deployed to Naha from Japan’s north, and the Self-Defence Forces will add new unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to its air force. To take back the islands in case of Chinese invasion, Japan will form its own version of America’s Marine Corps. Shigeru Ishiba, the secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and a former defence minister, recently said it was “unbelievable” that Japan does not already possess such an amphibious force.

Mr Abe made his first move to toughen the country’s defensive posture with a white paper released in July that accused China of taking “dangerous actions” in the East China Sea. As part of Mr Abe’s new security apparatus, a recently formed national-security council met for the first time last week. Last week’s document, which Mr Abe calls an “historic” step, promises that Japan will respond “calmly and resolutely to the rapid expansion and step-up of China’s maritime and air activities”. It characterises North Korea as a “grave and imminent threat”. The document also calls for the cultivation of “love of country” among the Japanese, and for “expanding security education” in the country’s universities. China’s foreign ministry responded this week by criticising Japan’s “hyping of the China threat”.

Perhaps the most controversial element of the new strategy is its promise to review Japan’s self-imposed ban on arms exports. The policy began in 1967 as a prohibition on selling weapons to some countries, such as those that were under United Nations sanctions, and eventually grew into a blanket ban on all such exports. The overall defence budget expanded slightly this year, for the first time in 11 years, but the money Japan has available to spend on military hardware is nevertheless shrinking as equipment-maintenance costs rise. The arms-export ban keeps costs high by obliging the local defence industry to produce materiel in relatively small batches.

There was at least one important sign of restraint. For the time being Japan will not plan to develop the capability for pre-emptive missile defence that some observers had expected. Its purpose would be to prevent the possibility of a North Korean missile attack and many LDP politicians have been advocating it, as a defensive measure. But that would alarm Japan’s neighbours—China and South Korea, most notably—more than any of the moves that were signalled this week. Though the new strategy looks like a five-year plan, defence stances are subject to redefinition each year. And the idea of building first-strike-capable force is still on the table for 2014, according to a government official.

Because of Japanese barbaric history of wars and invasions of her neighbours, Shinzo Abe's rearming of a belligerent Japan would cause alarm in the Asia Pacific and spark an arms race. Nobody with any understanding of Japanese history will see this as conducive to peace. Shinzo Abe's and Japanese rightists madness will put Japan down a slippery road to destruction!

Japan's starting an arms race is just what their masters in Washington wants. Nobody in Asia will benefit from an arms race including the Japanese themselves. The only beneficiary will be the military industrial complex in the USA that prides itself as being the single biggest cause of instability in the world with all the drone wars, war on Muslims etc. The Washington model just like Imperial Japan, is to destroy other countries while benefitting from all violence and getting all the loot.

Japan's remilitarization is all part of Mr Abe’s and the LDP plan for the reestablishment of Imperial Japan. As the inheritors of the legacy of the war-criminals Tojo and Hirohito, Mr Abe and the LDP are on the path to self destruction.

Remembering the Sino India conflict in '62. The US (and west) labeled China the aggressor seeking expansionist policies and promised to back India with troops and weapons if needed. This was part of the reason India became very aggressive and hostile in provoking the conflict.

Behind closed doors however, declassified CIA docs confirm US leaders knew India was the aggressor in the dispute and that China only aimed to maintain the line of control.

The island dispute with China and Japan smells like more of the same US/Western driven lies.

Mr Abe and the LDP seems madder by the day. With no solution to the nuclear pollution in Fukushima in sight, with no end to Japanese rightists madness, Japan is inflicting plenty of pain on herself. Denying past Japanese barbaric history, praying to war-criminals at the Yasukuni War Shrine, shamelessly insulting the hundreds of thousands of sex-slaves or comfort-women, denying the Rape of Nanking in which 300,000 thousands were slaughtered, not implementing in full the instrument of surrender etc., are acts of infamy and insanity, guaranteed to ensure that Japan will face even greater natural, economic and military catastrophes. I can't but say that you will reap what you sow. The more evil you are the greater will be the retribution!

When the world deals with Japanese leaders they are always mindful of the obnoxious recalcitrant brats they are. These are the people that shamelessly pray to war-criminals at the Yasukuni War Shrine and shamelessly lie to ordinary Japanese and the rest of the world about almost everything, whether it is the nuclear pollution in Fukushima or the Diaoyu Islands illegally administrated by Japan. Filipinos selling their souls to the rightists Japanese for a few yen insult the memory of the brave Filipino anti-Japanese resistance and the thousands of Filipino sex slaves.

Pick any country which has been in existance more than a couple of centuries. You can find a history of barbaric wars and invasions of neighbors in pretty much every one. Even countries as notably peaceful and non-agressive as Switzerland have such a history if you look.
.
So it makes far more sense to look at what a country is actually like today, than to look at what it may have been like in the past. Countries, like people, can and do change over time. The only sensible question is what they are like now, and in what direction they are currently trending.

Japan must re-arm before it's too late, and ditto to several neighboring countries of China because it never gives up its plan to take and control its surrounding seas and islands. To realise its plan, China shall use all tricks, ie propaganda, lies, fake documents, fake maps, oral wars, illegal claim based on fake historical evidences, causing troubles, testing nerve, military force etc, etc.

Well, it brings jobs and opportunities for the Japanese and Japanese firms overseas. Plus, the Japanese wins the heart and mind of the people of the countries receiving helps. Plus, ODA is not free, must be paid back (principals + interests) -> it's not "rob" as you say.

In the past, Japan gave a lot to China too - over 2 billion $ ODA per year to help China to get FATTER. But now, when China gets fat and stronger, China turns to BITE the guy who helped China a lot. That's (ROB + INGRATE).

haven't you been watching the news? the japan-ASEAN meeting in Tokyo, held on the 76th anniversary of Nanjing massacre, was a complete disaster and disappointment for mr abe government.
.
no ASEAN nation, not even Philippines signed up Japan's china-bashing agenda at the meeting. just look at their joint communique issued, it's such a joke on japan.
.
and japan had thought mistakenly, as it turns out, with a measly few $b of low interest loan it could have bribed ASEAN nations into siding with japan. ASEAN is not for sale, not at the price japan can ever afford.
.
china is ASEAN's biggest yet humble trading partner, and ASEAN nations are smart and clear that japan as a nation is nothing but a proxy state of the us that is still under the us occupation ever since ww2.
.
even the us is now de facto-ly conceding china's new AZID by recommending American airlines to observe and file flight plans for china's AZID.
.
japan got its post war prosperity on the generosity and hand out of the us. and japan lost most of its marbles because of plaza accord, reducing it over the decades to a second or third rate country with tons of public debts. japan has nothing to complain about the us though: what Caesar gave Caesar can take.
.
to say nothing that japan sports a GDP that's only about 50% of china's (it was more than china's only a few years ago), that japan, who depends heavily on foreign power for its nation defense and yet still feel righteous and brag about it, says a lot about the unenviable character of this country.
.
it's indeed a sad story for well over 70 years for japns people (who are nice like any people on earth) that will be only sadder and harsher for them if mr abe government is still unable to repent and reverse gear on its militaristic extremism against its neighbors china and south korea.

Japan will face a watery end to its existence if she keeps on chugging along the current path. TE conveniently forgets that Japan annexed the islands from china back in 19th century and whether TE sitting in its plush London office agrees or not, the islands will be returned to china just like thatcher had to return HK.

Air defence zone is just to disprove the notion that Japan has control over the islands...when it will be clear to all that Japan doesn't have administrative control, then the next step will be to either return or I don't know what.

To: Chandra Muzaffa.
Mr Xi and the CPC seem madder by the day. With no solution to the serious air pollution in Beijing and all other China's cities and water pollution in all rivers of China in in sight, with no end to the Maoist and Communist madness, China is inflicting plenty of pain on herself. Denying past barbaric killing of its own people, praying to Mao - the Slaughterer, shamelessly insulting and arresting the students, human rights activists, denying the Massacre of Tienanmen in which several thousands students were slaughtered, not implementing in full the Peaceful Rise, Bullying and resorting to take seas and islands of neighboring countries etc., are acts of infamy and insanity, guaranteed to ensure that China will face even greater natural, economic and military catastrophes. I can't but say that you will reap what you sow. The more evil you are the greater will be the retribution!
Amen.

What Japan is doing right now reminds us of what it was doing before the World War II. Going towards remilitarization is going to its own grave. Let all the countries in East Asia be prepared. This time, let's give Japan a chance to completely terminate its militarism.

Senkaku islands belong to Japan. Japan owns these islands. There's no dispute, no comment about it. China can't use "historical claim" to turn it into a dispute. That's illegal, absurd and not acceptable. Japan shall defend its territory by all means.